Total Reality Reviews

This thinking man's diversion derives its premise from those smug authors who, like modern-day Dale Carnegie, rip off the gullible with quick-fix solutions. And David Bradley, one of the direct-to-video marketplace's most engaging performers, scores in this action flick bursting with novel sci-fi riffs. In a screenplay notable for its finesse with freshening up formulas, Phillip Roth and Rob Trenton send up mass-market hucksters like Anthony Robbins, who turn the success ethic into a religion. Two hundred years in the future, Military "Bridgeists", who derive their power from a 20th-Century best-seller by John Bridges (Michael Mendelsohn), devote themselves to stamping out all individuality. Back in 1998, the opportunistic author financed his philosophical lectures with funds stolen from his ex-wife Cathy (Ely Pouget), and twisted his theories to serve the purposes of ambitious congressman, Jarry (Geoff Prysirr). Two anti-Bridgeists, Tunis (Thomas Kretschmann) and Norris (Eddi Wilde), travel back to 1998 to nip the Bridgeist movement in the bud. At the Ganymede Military Prison, several convicts, including Rand (Bradley), are offered amnesty in exchange for intercepting Norris and Tunis. After Tunis and Norris attempt to blow up Bridges's home, the cops blame Cathy, who becomes Rand's ally. This future-imperfect fantasy throws in everything but the kitchen sink, an arsenal includes quizzical FBI agents, genetic replication and warring factions from 200 years hence. But every bizarre future result is neatly (and believably) planted in a contentious present. How many action films present a protagonist like Rand, who's conflicted about his own agenda? Despite the sword of Damocles of his death sentence, he begins to side with Tunis and Norris.